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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28886550">One-Two</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/'>Anonymous</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Outer Worlds (Video Game)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>POV Second Person, fistfights in the storage bay, pre-Monarch</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 08:34:23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>771</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28886550</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Probably none of the crew believes you about being from the Hope. The fact they stick with you anyways makes you nervous. No, that’s not quite right. You’re not nervous about Parvati. She’s really there for the Unreliable’s engine room. And Felix doesn’t make you nervous. He’s just a kid excited to be leaving Groundbreaker. Not Ellie either; she's sticking around for the bits.</p>
<p>It’s just Max who makes you nervous.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>The Captain &amp; Maximillian DeSoto</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Anonymous, Unofficial FFA Anon Collection</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>One-Two</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>For the prompt "100 words of boxing." Some edits since first posted.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Probably none of the crew believes you about being from the Hope. The fact they stick with you anyways makes you nervous. No, that’s not quite right. You’re not nervous about Parvati. She’s really there for the Unreliable’s engine room. And Felix doesn’t make you nervous. He’s just a kid excited to be leaving Groundbreaker. Not Ellie either; she's sticking around for the bits.</p>
<p>It’s just Max who makes you nervous. Then again Max makes everybody nervous, far as you can tell, except maybe Ellie. And maybe Ellie’s just too full of bravado to let show.</p>
<p>Another couple hours and you’ll be headed to Monarch. You can’t sleep. Parvati is somewhere on the Groundbreaker, mooning over Junlei or the station’s engines or yet more likely both. Ellie and Felix have been drinking and talking about the aetherwave serials for hours. You and Max are about to beat the shit out of each other in the storage bay which is a terrible idea, but the minute Max suggested it might at least wear one of you out enough to sleep you figured why the hell not.</p>
<p>At least it gets you both away from the aetherwave talk. If you hear Felix mention the Masked Marketeer one more time, you’re going to have to invent ways to demote him.</p>
<p>Max is a better boxer than you’d figured him for. Shouldn’t surprise you, maybe — you haven’t figured out everything about the colony, but you’re pretty sure Max’s stint as prison chaplin included more physical violence than most of the Groundbreaker MarDets see in a lifetime.</p>
<p>He’s too aggressive though. Figures. You focus more on dodging, watching the set of his shoulders, than you do trying to get a good hit in. He gets slower. You get cocky; he gets a couple good hits in to your midsection; eventually, once you’re not thinking so hard about everything, there’s an opening and you go for it. One-two, jab with your left, then connect with your right fist. You don’t hit him hard; you do hit him harder than you meant to. </p>
<p>You drop your hands to your knees, panting to catch your breath. "Shit. You okay?"</p>
<p>The vicar nods, smears the blood dripping from his nose down to his upper lip. There’s not a lot of it. Nothing broken, you think.</p>
<p>"Well done, Captain Hawthorne." His voice is light and professional even though he’s breathing heavy too. He drags more blood across the heel of his palm. He sounds controlled but he doesn’t look it. He looks like he could tear your throat out with his teeth. "Have you ever considered a career as a tossball back? You certainly have the right hook for it."</p>
<p>Your hand stings. Every time he calls you <i>Hawthorne</i>, you want to airlock him. But it’s always comforting watching Max put himself back together after he lets his temper slip a little bit. You’re not the only one on the Unreliable hiding who you really are. For you, it’s just more literal.</p>
<p>Time goes slow. The couple seconds it takes for the vicar to make himself look less bloodthirsty stretches on and on and on for you. You could snap out of it. You should. You’re getting better at snapping out of it when it’s not a firefight. But Max got a good shot in on your ribs and you’re supposed to go to Monarch soon and Law knows what’s waiting for you there. Time goes right again.</p>
<p>"Maybe me and Felix can try for the Spacer’s Chosen once all this is done," you say.</p>
<p>"Ah, perhaps aim a little lower for your first season." Max smiles. One of his men-of-the-cloth smiles, nothing feral restrained behind it. "Advice you didn’t have to take when punching me in the face, of course. I should go find our Dr. Fenhill."</p>
<p>"She’s in the kitchen. Or was last I saw." As Max turns for the stairs, limping a little, you say, "Thanks, Vicar."</p>
<p>"I hope it helps you get a good night’s rest. Exhaustion is the highest reward we can hope for from an honest day’s work."</p>
<p>Scientist platitudes usually make you roll your eyes, but right now you’ll take it. Your ribs hurt. You'll need Adreno in the morning. No good landing on a planet as dangerous as Monarch already wounded. You'll take it in the morning; it'll wake you right up.</p>
<p>Max, though — he’s more afraid of what he’ll find on Monarch than you are. Maybe the person most nervous being around the vicar is the man himself. That’s probably exhausting too. You hope he gets some sleep. You figure he won’t.</p>
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